Friday, January 25, 2008

Since my puff size is starting to get ridiculous I can just use one of those goodie's ouchless bands to create a puff. I discovered the ouchless band that covers up that glue like material that fuses the material together and I love it 10000 times more than the one that leaves that rough glue rubbing against your hair.

For those of you who do use it, you can smooth it down some with a nail file.

Now it is a shrunken puff.... I was so not ready to take this down but you know how it is...if you dont do it now you never will....

And this will be the last time I let my hair sit in a puff this long. I might have to give myself a 1/2 inch trim because of it...all of the single strand knots I have collected in a week's time is ridiculous!

Imma regret this one:

small shrunken twists. When its time for these badboys come down I'm gonna clip the ends of each one first because as I was twisting my ends were tangly and knotty from that daggone puffing I did for a week.

I have also noticed I can see my scalp a little in the back, something I haven't seem since my hair was jacked up from the color. I just hope that it is because my hair is getting longer and making my scalp more visible. It also looks a little thinner to me....like I said I hope I'm just worrying over nothing...

Sept 07 v. Jan 08:

Check this out! If I am not mistaken (I have to go back and reread to make sure later) the twists done in September were stretched out and the ones I did this month are shrunken! I could not believe the length of these badboys while I was twisting my hair...I was like "where did all this hair come from???" lol....since Im anti heat right now probably next month I will lose my mind and do box braids....

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

I plan to leave it like this until sunday or monday (for 4-5 days)
I used water and aloe vera gel and a silk scarf to tie the edges down. I let the scarf sit around the edges for an hour then took it off...

Time for a new hairdo:

I did a diagonal part first and flat twisted all the way down to my ear, then did another diagonal part for where the twists were suppose to go, and flat twisted the middle section....

It wasn't like I planned it out or anything, I just went with the flow

I kinda really liked the style I did in december and couldn't think of any other better style so I just copied myself lol...its very similar except I switched the direction of the twists and flat twists....

I braided the roots in the front half of my head and in the middle section of my head...I did the same thing with the last twist/flat twist style and liked the outcome but I just regretted the take down hence the reason why I only did this in the front half of my hair....

It does make your hair look thinner at the roots but I think that the twists lay better with the roots braided and last longer this way....

and I am not balding..lol...I braided the roots at the top and sides but not the back ;) It gives the style more bounce and movement and is less likely to get smooshed down and stuff

I found the sequins hat I was looking for!!!!

Ya'll should have seen me up in forever 21...lol...bout to knock people over trying to get to it.....
But forreal though, I'm going to try to compose an album just full of hats and hair accessories and things like that to show the different ways you can jazz up a protective style to show the versatility of it and how you can go weeks at a time with protective styles and never get bored....

COMPARISON:

Shrunken twists done right after major trim/2nd bc vs. my hair now...

lol, I can just imagine me trying to do twists this big on my hair back then.....hot mess.....also, although I was quite upset over losing inches from cutting off damaged ends (why do we get all emotional over losing hair that was damaged and jacking our overall look up?) I actually like the way I look with my hair at that length.....not as bad as I was making out to be....

Literally Right After I Took My Braids Down:

I couldn't believe how boff (sp) my fro was! So I stopped and took a picture....

I don't know what has been happening with my hair but I have been picking up lint or some gummy like stuff in my hair. I don't know if it is the castor oil or what but whatever it is its encouraging my hair to tangle on the ends.....
cant win for losing

Pulled it Back Into a Puff:

....for now...I'm not feeling it because I detangled my hair as I went along (with my fingers)therefore my hair is looking like a hawt mess...but it will do for now...the less I have to mess with it the happier I am :)

Then it morphed into a pony puff:

as pony puff as it is going to get for me anyway...lol....this will be the first and last time I will rock one of these things...TOO TIGHT...

I just brushed my dry hair back into submission and threw a scrunchie thing around it....

Saturday, January 5, 2008

but its going in the January album just cause I can do that.... :P lol

Me and mi Madre...(I think that's right???), on our way to my sister's house for some bomb dinner....my papa didn't want to take a pic so he is not featured :( (since he has been diagnosed with cancer and has been losing weight he doesn't like to take pictures if you can understand)
ps...my mother don't look too bad to be 68 does she? ;)

How My Hair was Holding Up:

Its 8 days old here.....I think I am officially in love with big-medium size twists on me....I think this is fittin to be the jank for the 0-8 (ya'll aint know I was a rapper did ya'll... Ms-gg, album in stores, spring 08!) I promise Im sober....

Braidout (new year's eve):

compared to the one I did in December, this one is more shrunken cause it wasn't 100% dry when I took it down, plus I didn't braid each section up slathered in curl activator gel or aloe vera gel, I slathered it on after the fact....

Plus these braids were bigger than the ones I did in December so that's why its more chunkier....But I like it like this too....

My hair needs a break from all the twisting and braiding. Although I am a believer in the power of protective styles and length retention, I am also a believer in letting your hair breathe and rest every now and then and letting it do its thing...so I did a braid out after spending aaaaaaallll day Sunday taking down my twist style (note to self, braided roots on twists are a beach).

I retested a product that I gave up on after it didn't work to good on when I first bought it, the Hollywood Beauty Olive Creme, and the HB Castor Oil, and it left my hair pretty darn soft...I think they both might be a keeper....

COMPARISON:

October v. December
I see some good growth...My ear is completely covered up and it flops more now then it did back then....it looks fuller...but I still favor the october one over this one but its all good.....

Umm....please tell me why I have been getting the urge to cut my hair back down to my July 07 length ya'll? I loved my twist outs and twists at that length.....I think I'm going to shoot for my waist length goal or however long my hair will grow goal, then chop my hair back down to a 4 inch fro...I loved it....

Friday, January 4, 2008

OHMIGAWD ya'll....occasionally I do spot checks on my shed hair to see how my strands are doing, whether they have splits or incomplete splits (holes in the hair strand that will cause breakage and splits in the future) and I got ALL of that. At first I thought it was on one strand, maybe concentrated in ONE AREA. Nope. It is all over the place. I don't know what to do. Im frustrated at this point. I do protective styles to reduce the risk of damaging my hair and my hair STILL gets damaged. I deep condition for 1-2 hours every week! AAAAAAA! I have seen this on about 4 strands that have shed, and have seen a lot of splits in general and an increase in split ends...I panic ya'll cause I haven't gotten split ends in like almost a year and I'm just heated right now.... :(

another theory of how I could have gotten the incomplete splits (yes I really do sit and think about this stuff!):
1)brushing my hair-I have a 100% boars bristle brush that I bought at a beauty supply store (I think) back when I was a permie. I had this SAME problem sometime in late 2006 when I was using
this SAME brush (haven't used it since)..hmmmm
I dont rough handle my hair so that is the only thing I can think of....I hate setbacks....that brush is getting the boot....
2) In November or so I tried to air dry my hair on rollers. My hair got caught in the rollers and I had to rip them out of my head :(....but I don't think that this would cause the multiple holes I see in my strands....I think its the brush
3) Too much protein: I think I have done either 2-3 protein treatments since September.
4) Protective styles....maybe they do more harm then good because that's all I do?

Besides my hair looking like swiss cheese this dry air is murdering my napps....they will NOT stay moisturized for nothing...castor, coconut, shea....my hair laughs at it....